Coaching Computer Software

I just read an article about Ron Wilson using software to help him and his team. I know my old college program just spent 6K on software to help them.
But wondered what type of software is out there? Id would think there is something that you can upload game video and edit accordingly. Not sure what else it could do.

So curious, Tom you ever use something like that?
------------------------
Left Wing - When I was working for Red Bull Hockey in Austria each coach had a Steva program that you could break down video according to situations that happen in the game like pp or a 2-1 etc. They you could save that game. Coaches would be on their computer for hours at a time. It was pretty costly but they have a cheaper version for amateur coaches. I think they are based in Toronto because Ron would come from there to give tech help.
Tom
------------------------------------------------------


Article
Leafs go high-tech in hunt for Stanley Cup
October 4, 2010 00:10:00

Mark Zwolinski
SPORTS REPORTER
Armed with tablet computers on the bench, cameras to capture every back check and odd-man rush, and a mind for software unrivalled in the NHL, Maple Leafs coach Ron Wilson has gone high-tech to build a winning hockey team.
Fans who sit behind the team bench at the Air Canada Centre may notice computers wired to mini-work stations at both ends of the players’ bench. They link to streaming devices that capture and redirect statistics, replays and live game action for instant analysis and post-game dissection. The Leafs also have access to video and statistics from around the league.
“What we’re doing now is watching every power play and every penalty kill around the league and putting together what we think would be the best power play and what is the best penalty kill for our team,” Wilson said.
Not on display is Wilson’s secret coaching weapon — software developed by the coach using OS-X, the Apple operating system. He owns an iPad, and has started to consider how it might integrate into his coaching routine, though so far he’s reluctant to carry it on the bench during games.
More than 30 years ago, former Leafs coach Roger Neilson became an innovator in the NHL by using video to analyze opposing teams. Wilson has taken up where Neilson left off, and taken it to another level.
These days almost every team uses technology to some degree to find a competitive edge and monitor their own players in minute detail. Coaches use video editing, real-time stats and video, and Smartboards on the ice. Teams employ video analysts who monitor and evaluate every available piece of information for the coaching staff and players.
But in the 1970s, Neilson’s video analysis was a curiosity, earning him the nickname Captain Video and criticism from old-school coaching types who preferred to keep decades of hockey knowledge in their head rather than on a hard drive. Wilson was an early admirer of Neilson’s approach, and began using it as an assistant coach in Vancouver in 1990. Soon, other teams began to notice.
“Right from the get-go I was using them (computers),” Wilson said. “I was an assistant coach to Pat Quinn in Vancouver. I helped a couple of companies to come up with what we needed. At first it was video, editing and other things, with VHS tapes, we were the first ones to do it.”
At first in Vancouver, Wilson screened and produced video to show the Canucks what they needed to work on in practice. Eventually he looked for an editing program that suited his needs, and hired a video coach to work with the club.
“In the 90s we spent time . . . developing software. Now we’re using different servers, not necessarily on our computer systems. Each coach has a station to go to. It can be complicated. The video self edits, based on real-time stats from the NHL. That was an issue, to get the league to open their real-time stats and video so the coaches didn’t have to do it. Now we can look at the game shift by shift, any time, any game, any season.”
The coach comes by his geeky side honestly. When he was 10, Wilson spent summers in a Canadian Pacific Railway station with his grandfather, who repaired communications equipment. He learned how to use a Teletype machine, and got a kick out of typing his name, pulling out the tape, popping it into another machine and seeing the words appear on a television screen.
Over the years, Wilson has developed software and databases — and he keeps them under wraps. When it comes to bits and bytes, he deferrers to experts, but the way Wilson has used information to shape his approach to coaching is cutting edge.
And it seems to work. When he took over as coach in San Jose in 2002, the Sharks ranked 26th in the NHL in goals against, and their penalty kill was worst in the league. The following season, the Sharks had a franchise best 183 goals against, a sixth ranked penalty kill, and finished the regular season as one of only three teams with five players with 20 or more goals.
“All players can pull up all shifts, instantly, at work stations we have set up around the ACC,” Wilson said. “It helps players scout themselves, like in football, and makes a coach’s job easier because we’re not always coming at them with something negative about the way they’re playing.
“If there’s a question — like should we get Clark McArthur — then we can go on and get every shift, every hit, every time he was hit. . . . It’s that detailed, and that’s good for the whole organization.”

Technology today is amazing. When I left Hockey Canada and the National Team in the late 1990's, I was still using VCR's to cut tape. Two years later, everything was digital. Now I am behind the times a bit as I don't need to be on the cutting edge based on my current work in the skill academies (but I wish I had more time and $ to pursue it!) Sometimes I think that one needs to be a full-time pro coach to learn all the new programs.

I have played with XOS and STEVA and the like... it takes time to get used to any program. The more features and complicated it is, the more time it takes to learn. If a technology eventually saves time and makes my coaching life better, I am all for it. But I don't want to become a slave to the technology... or spend too much time learning it - time I could be using in other ways.

Nowadays, at the higher levels (sometimes even at Junior A Tier 2), the staffs include a specialty person for video editing. The coach just tells them what to look for to help support the team discussions.

The whole key to video is the footage itself - most programs don't have (1) a great location to shoot from; (2) multiple cameras / angles; (3) the money in the budget to pay for the hardware, software and people! Although the hardware and software budgets are coming down drastically in the last 10 years...

SMART Technologies has an office 10 minutes from my house. They did a presentation to the Flames in the summer but the Flames opted to stick with their current provider. I have a friend there who said he would demonstrate their products to me... I plan on taking him up on it; knowing I don't have a (perceived) need for anything right now - but I want to learn about their products. I think the school boards here use their stuff in the classrooms now... Man when I taught university, I was using overhead projectors and blackboards... whiteboards were just coming in! None of that Powerpoint stuff...!